03-14-2025
How Long Will It Take To Sell My Business? Insights From The Q4 2024 Executive Summary Report
If you're thinking about selling your business, you probably want to know how long it will take. Maybe you need to move to another state to help attend to a family member. Maybe you’re looking forward to sitting on the beach or playing golf in your retirement. Maybe you’ve reached a specific metric or you’re just burned out and want to do something else. In any case, timing is going to matter.
So, how long does it take to sell a business? Although a frustrating answer, the truth is it depends.
In general, the time from listing to closing is an average of 9 to 12 months. Some businesses sell much faster. Some need a lot of time. There are a myriad of factors that will affect the timeframe of your business sale.
Some of those factors include whether or not your business is turn-key, if specific licenses are needed to run your business, the general economy, the state of your industry, the impacts of local issues, how niche your business is, etc. It really does depend on each business individually.
If you want to see the most recent metrics, the Market Pulse Q4 2024 Executive Summary has some insights. According to this report, “the average time to sell a small business stayed relatively consistent in Q4 2024, varying from six to 10 months” which is in line with the year-over year average of 9 to 12 months.
The trends also show that most owners of Main Street size businesses (<$500K to $1M-$2M) were selling at the end of last year because of a desire to retire. The next three reasons were burnout, new opportunities and relocation.
If any of these reasons for selling resonate with you, maybe it’s time to talk to an experienced and qualified business broker about your exit strategy going forward.
Are you thinking about selling your business in the next year and were surprised to learn how long it can take to sell a business? Would you like to know how long businesses similar to yours take to sell? Ask us! Please feel free to leave any questions or comments and we would be happy to help.
Michael Monnot
941.518.7138